Durst L1840 Enlarger 8x10 10x10--Everything you wanted to know...

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Originally Posted by ic-racer

.....so that I can make an adapter like the UNIPLA, that will hold the lens cones and boards from my Omega enlargers. This way I can put the 150mm on and enlarge 4x5s.

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The 150mm lens should work fine, but remember that the front standard, where the lenses attach, can physically go only so close to the negative. Lenses shorter than approximately 100mm on a Vapla board will not get close enough to the negative to focus. The solution is a recessed lensboard, Laratub, that has a 39mm Leica thread for the smaller lenses and is recessed about 2 inches.

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Originally Posted by resummerfield

The 150mm lens should work fine, but remember that the front standard, where the lenses attach, can physically go only so close to the negative. Lenses shorter than approximately 100mm on a Vapla board will not get close enough to the negative to focus. The solution is a recessed lensboard, Laratub, that has a 39mm Leica thread for the smaller lenses and is recessed about 2 inches.

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Yes, the D5500 is like that in its own smaller way. The Omega lens cones seem to work fine flipped around, so I was thinking of using them inverted, though they are not as deep as the HOTUB I have seen.

There is a HOTUB on e-bay now. This is not listed in the L1840 manual, do you know anything about this and how it differs from the LARATUB?

Just out of curiosity I did some 4x5 enlargements with the 300mm. An 8x10 is easy and 16x20 (my largest size) is actually possible with the baseboard all the way down.

I'm actually going to stop by Wall-Mart tonight and see the pan selection...

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There is a HOTUB on e-bay now. This is not listed in the L1840 manual, do you know anything about this and how it differs from the LARATUB?

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The Latub will fit in the place where the normal Lapla will go on the Unipla and will give you a recess of about 2". The Hotub 2500 will fit in place of the Unipla or the Vapla and will give a recess of about 4" and can take for instance a Rodagon 150mm.

I hope this is nog too confusing and gives you some insight.
Cheers Gary

This has been a very interesting thread to follow with all the details. I feel I have learned a lot. I'm very much in the same situation as I have just recently got my hands on a Durst 1840. I have had an 8x10" camera for a short while and my intention was just to make contact prints. But as I was offered this enlarger for a reasonable price I just could not resists the temptation. The firts impression is that the size is huge; I'll have to rebuild my basement darkroom to fit it in. I haven't even got all the parts of the enlarger yet, so it's functions are not tested yet, looking forward to it in the near future.

One thing that puzzles me especially is the Laraneg negative carrier. I have the feeling that some parts are missing from my neg carrier, maybe the seller has not provided me all the parts. The manual is either not very helpful in this issue. How should the 8x10" neg carrier with glasses look?

thanks,
Olli

Please post some pictures of your enlarger if you get a chance.

Here are the components to my Laraneg.

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Originally Posted by gary mulder

The Latub will fit in the place where the normal Lapla will go on the Unipla and will give you a recess of about 2". The Hotub 2500 will fit in place of the Unipla or the Vapla and will give a recess of about 4" and can take for instance a Rodagon 150mm......

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Correct. Durst also made the Laratub which is about 8-inch in diameter with a 2-inch recess and fits in place of the Vapla. I have only needed the Laratub for 50mm and 80mm lenses. My 150mm lens works on a flat Vapla.

If you use the Hotub on the L1840, you MUST change the plunger in back of the front standard which stops the electric focus when the bellows/front standard gets too close to the neg carrier. Otherwise, the 4-inch deep Hotub could physically contact and crush the neg carrier.

That Hotub on Ebay doesn't seem to have the threaded insert to screw the lenses into. Better check before you bid.

I went to check the pots and pans at a Wall-Mart near me. I did not find anything that would make a good adapter board for my Omega lens cones. The main problem is that the 8" frying pans were too deep. So they would stick out too much. They may be OK to mount a 300mm lens, if you did not have a lensboard already.

Another problem was price. They did not have anything for $3.88. In fact the prices were like from $20 to $30. Better, I thought, to try and get some real DURST pieces off e-bay. I notice that that HOTUB went for under $30.

I hope this thread can serve as a reference for the Durst enlargers, so here is a list of some links relating to Durst 10x10 enlargers.

Durst Pro USA. http://www.jensen-optical.us/ Out of courtesy to them I am just giving the main page link. But once you get to his site look for these good PDF files: 8x10 enlarger buyer's guide, Durst Enlarger Guide, Durst Product Brochure, Enlarger selection, Light Heads For Durst Enlargers and others.

http://www.glennview.com/durst.htm sells Durst 10x10 enlargers and related gear.

http://www.footprintsequipment.com looks like they sell Durst 1840s and have some pdf Durst brochures on the site

http://www.pgsys.com/ is Photographic Systems and they list Durst 10x10 enlargers and accessories for sale.

http://www.kullphoto.com/usedequipment.htm another company listing Durst 8x10 enlargers for sale.

http://cresimaging.com/optical_enlar...cessories.html is another dealer.

For service and parts here are two possible sources, in addition to Durst Pro USA,

Stephan Cooper in New Mexico (505-247-9780), who used to have a shop called PGSystems and now deals on Ebay as “harry020202”

Bob Simpson at Stonemills in Canada (613-358-5658).http://www.webwoods.com/stonemills/index.cfm

http://manuelsphoto.free.fr/ has some PDF Durst manuals to download.

http://www2.durst.it/shop/ga.asp?prodcatid=6 This is the 'official' Durst site. It is listed last because it has the least info on the 10x10 enlargers. In fact the only thing I could find on this whole site was a link to buy an L1840 Owner's Manual for 20 euros.

Here are some photos that I forgot to post previously. They show the replacement of the LM324N op-amp. Unfortunatly, there was nothing wrong with the component, but thats just part of the 'shotgun' aproach :).

I used a Dremel cutting wheel to remove the legs from the IC (removing these always destroys them). Then I unsoldered each of the feet. Then I used some desolder wick to get as much of the solder out of the holes. I used a pinvise and a small drill bit to open up the holes. When ever I do this I always use a socket for the new IC. That way I don't have to apply any heat to the new IC.

It is a little surreal that of the hundreds of thousands of 14-pin ICs out there, the LM324N is one of the 3 ICs that Radio Shack carries. I guess the story would have been better it this was the component that fixed it :).

In the interest of showing things that are not shown in the owner's manual, here is a LARATUB.

From what I understand, it is threaded to accept 39mm lenses (std. Leica). I am not sure if they made ones with other ethreads. This is intended for 50 through 80mm lenses, though, I suspect any 39mm threaded lens will fit.

Eric's post above seems to indicate the LARATUB is safe, in that it will NOT hit the negative carrier when the lens stage is racked all the way up.

(I don't have one of these, these pictures came from e-bay)